Kony has been accused by government entities of ordering the abduction of children to become sex slaves and child soldiers.[20] 66,000 children became soldiers. 2 million people were displaced internally from 1986 to 2009.[21]

Biography

Early life

Kony was born in August 1961[1] in Odek, a village east of Gulu in northern Uganda,[2][25] to farmers Luizi and Nora Obol.[26] He is a member of the Acholi people.[2][27] Kony enjoyed a good relationship with his siblings, but was quick to retaliate in a dispute and when confronted he would often resort to physical violence.[28] His father was a lay catechist of the Catholic Church and his mother was an Anglican. His older sister, Gabriela Lakot, still lives in Odek.[29]

Kony was an altar boy for church until 1976.[28] and also dropped out of school.[2]

The atrocities committed by the Museveni's National Resistance Army now known as Uganda People's Defence Force led to the creation of LRA or Joseph Kony. The insurgencies also gave rise to concentration camps in Northern Uganda where over 2 million people lived. The government burned people's properties using helicopter gunships killing many of them. There were forceful displacements in the northern region. However, international campaigns called for all camps to be dismantled, and for the people to return to their former villages. In 2006 in the course of Juba peace talks with the LRA rebels, the Museveni's government gave permission for the local people to return to their villages. This marked the beginning of rehabilitation of homes, roads and so on.[31]

Lord's Resistance Army

Kony has been implicated in abduction and recruitment of child soldiers. While there is no doubt that Kony recruited children, the government of Uganda has equally been accused of abducting and recruiting children into the army. In June 2006, the UN's representative found more than 5000 children in the Ugandan army.[32]

The LRA have had battle confrontations with the government's National Resistance Army or UPDF within Uganda and in South Sudan for ten years. However, in 2008 the Ugandan army invaded the Democratic Republic of the Congo in search for the LRA in Operation Lightning Thunder.,[33] in November 2013, Kony was reported to be in poor health in the East CAR town of Nzoka[34]

Religious beliefs

Kony was thought among followers and detractors alike to have been possessed by spirits; he has been portrayed as an elusive leader. Kony believes in the literal protection provided by a cross symbol and tells his child soldiers a cross on their chest drawn in oil will protect them from bullets.[28] He also believes in polygamy. He is thought to have had many wives--some of whom were killed during the insurgency--and there are claims that he has 42 children.[5][6] Kony insists that he and the Lord's Resistance Army are fighting for the Ten Commandments. He defends his actions: "Is it bad? It is not against human rights. And that commandment was not given by Joseph. It was not given by LRA. No, those commandments were given by God."[39]

Ugandan political leader Betty Bigombe remembered that the first time she met Kony, his followers used oil to ward off bullets and evil spirits.[40] In a letter regarding future talks, Kony stated that he must consult his self-styled holy spirit. When the talks did occur, Kony and his followers insisted on the participation of religious leaders and opened the proceedings with prayers, led by LRA's Director of Religious Affairs Jenaro Bongomi. During the 1994 peace talks, Kony was preceded by men in robes sprinkling holy water.[25] According to Francis Ongom, a former LRA officer who defected, Kony "has found Bible justifications for killing witches, for killing [those who farm or eat] pigs because of the story of the Gadarene swine, and for killing [other] people because God did the same with Noah's flood and Sodom and Gomorrah."[41]

Action against Kony

Uganda

The Ugandan military has attempted to kill Kony throughout the insurgency. In Uganda's attempt to track Kony down, former LRA combatants have been enlisted to search remote areas of the Central African Republic, Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo where he was last seen.[42]

In November 2008, U.S. President George W. Bush personally signed the directive to the United States Africa Command to provide financial and logistical assistance to the Ugandan government during the unsuccessful 2008–2009 Garamba offensive, code-named Operation Lightning Thunder. No U.S. troops were directly involved, but 17 U.S. advisers and analysts provided intelligence, equipment, and fuel to Ugandan military counterparts. The offensive pushed Kony from his jungle camp, but he was not captured. One hundred children were rescued.[45]

In May 2010, U.S. President Barack Obama signed into law the Lord's Resistance Army Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act,[46] legislation aimed at stopping Kony and the LRA. The bill passed unanimously in the United States Senate on 11 March. On 12 May 2010, a motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill was agreed to by voice vote (two-thirds being in the affirmative) in the House of Representatives.[47] In November 2010, President Obama delivered a strategy document to Congress, asking for more funding to disarm Kony and the LRA.[48] In October 2011, President Obama authorized the deployment of approximately 100 combat-equipped U.S. troops to central Africa.[49] Their goal is to help regional forces remove Kony and senior LRA leaders from the battlefield. "Although the U.S. forces are combat-equipped, they will only be providing information, advice, and assistance to partner nation forces, and they will not themselves engage LRA forces unless necessary for self-defense," President Obama said in a letter to Congress.[50][51]

On 3 April 2013, the Obama administration offered rewards of up to $5 million for information leading to the arrest, transfer or conviction of Kony, Ongwen and Odhiambo.[52][53][54][55]

On 24 March 2014 the United States announced they would deploy at least four CV-22 Ospreys and refuelling planes, and 150 Air Force special forces personnel to assist in the capture of Kony.[56]

African Union

On 23 March 2012 the African Union announced its intentions to "send 5,000 soldiers to join the hunt for rebel leader Joseph Kony" and to "neutralize" him while isolating the scattered LRA groups responsible for 2,600 civilian killings since 2008. This international task force was stated to include soldiers "from Uganda, South Sudan, Central African Republic and Congo, countries where Kony’s reign of terror has been felt over the years." Prior this announcement, the hunt for Kony has primarily been carried out by troops from Uganda. The soldiers will begin their search in South Sudan on 24 March 2012 and that the search "will last until Kony is caught".[57]

Kony 2012

Kony received a surge of attention in early March 2012 when a 30-minute documentary titled Kony 2012 by film maker Jason Russell for the campaign group Invisible Children Inc was released.[58] The intention of the production is to draw attention to Kony in an effort to increase United States involvement in the issue and have Kony arrested by the end of 2012,[59] A poll suggested that more than half of young adult Americans heard about Kony 2012 in the days following the video's release.[60][61] Kony 2012 has been widely criticized for largely ignoring the fact that Joseph Kony was already pushed out of Uganda long before the film was made, for using funds largely for themselves, and for hypocrisy by ignoring human rights abuses by the Ugandan military.[62]

The "Arrow Boys" Militia

The Arrow Boys militia was founded in Teso in Eastern Uganda. The name comes from the fact that they use primitive weapons such as bows and arrows or clubs against the superiorly armed LRA child soldiers. Between 2003 and 2005 they waged a counter insurgency campaign that forced the LRA out of that region. [63] Militia in Southern Sudan who have fought against the LRA since it fled there from Uganda have adopted the same name. They have had success in driving off small groups of LRA rebels.[64]